19th November 2020
IWS took part in the Kick-off Meeting of NICHE – Nurturing Intangible Cultural Heritage for Entrepreneurship, a new Erasmus Plus project under the KA2 Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices – Strategic Partnerships for VET.
NICHE aims at enhancing entrepreneurship in the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) sector by developing innovative training for the underserved cohort of professionals (and prospective ones) who operate in ICH to promote entrepreneurial initiatives in the sector, enhance its competitiveness and sustain its growth.
ICH is more important for the EU economy than the entire automotive sector: over 300,000 people work in the EU cultural heritage sector. Almost 8 million jobs in the EU are indirectly linked to heritage (tourism, interpretation, security). For each direct job, the heritage sector produces 26.7 indirect jobs. This compares with 6.3 indirect jobs created for each direct job in the car industry.
In this context, Partners will carry out a series of well-defined activities that will lead to the production of tangible and operational results, and develop:
- EQF compliant professional profile of ICH professional
- Training courses based on innovative topics for the ICH sector, such as management, fundraising, multifunctional work, Digital Cultural Heritage
- A pan-EU Open Educational Resource that becomes the focal point for ICH professionals to widen and deepen their skills and competences to be more competitive and respond to the demand of a fast evolving and growing market
The meeting, originally planned in Brussels, was held online due to the COVID-19 restrictions. The partners had the opportunity to introduce themselves by dedicating the first part of the meeting to the presentation of the organisations that will collaborate in the development of NICHE. During the meeting the partners analysed the details of the project plan and precisely defined roles and responsibilities for the implementation of the project activities. After reviewing all the objectives and results to be produced, the partners established the visual identity of the project by choosing, the logo and the website domain that will be online very soon. An action list was defined at the end of the meeting so that all that partners are on the same page in terms of activities, responsibilities and deadlines.
NICHE is co-funded by the Erasmus Plus Programme of the European Commission with a duration of 24 months between 2020/22. The project will be implemented by a partnership of nine organisations from seven European countries (Iceland, Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Sweden).
IWS will be the IT partner involved in the project, responsible for the developing of NICHE OER platform, that will be available 24-7 for all the duration of the project and beyond. The platform will host all the deliverables and the intellectual outputs produced in the 6 official languages. Moreover, IWS will follow and implement each steps of the project that will promote entrepreneurship in the ICH sector.
